Births and Deaths Registration (Northern Ireland) Order 1976

PART I N.I. INTRODUCTORY

Title and commencement N.I.

1.  This Order may be cited as the Births and Deaths Registration (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 … Commencement …

Interpretation N.I.

2.—(1) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 [1954 c.33] shall apply to Article 1 and the following provisions of this Order as it applies to a Measure of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

(2) In this Order—

• “birth” means a live or a still birth [F1 in Northern Ireland];

• [F2 “ death ” means death in Northern Ireland; ]

• “the Department” means the Department of Finance;

• “disposal”, in relation to a dead body, means disposal by burial, cremation or any other means;

• “event” means any event which may or is to be registered by a registrar;

• [F3 “father”, in relation to an adopted child, means the child's natural father;]

• “general search” means a search conducted during any number of successive hours not exceeding six, without specifying the object of the search;

• “live-birth” means the birth of a child born alive;

• Definition rep. by 1979 c. 36

• [F3 “mother”, in relation to an adopted child, means the child's natural mother;]

• “occupier”, in relation to a public building, includes the governor, matron, superintendent or other chief officer, and, in relation to a house let in separate apartments or lodgings, includes any person residing in the house who is either the person under whom the lodgings or apartments are immediately held or his agent;

• [F4 “parental responsibility” and “parental responsibility agreement” have the same meanings as in the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995;]

• “particular search” means a search covering a period not exceeding five years for a specified entry;

• “person who effects the disposal” means the person who keeps, or whose officer keeps, the register of burials, or of disposals by other means, in which the disposal is to be registered;

• “premises” includes a public building;

• “prescribed” means—

  (a)

  except in the case of any fee, prescribed by regulations;

  (b)

  in the said excepted case, prescribed by an order under Article 47;

• “public building” means a prison, barracks, hospital, welfare home and such other public building as may be prescribed;

• “qualified informant”, in relation to any birth or death, means a person who is by this Order required, or stated to be qualified, to give information concerning that birth or death;

• “registered medical practitioner” means a fully registered person within the meaning of[F5 section 55 of the Medical Act 1983];

• F6 ...

• “regulations” means regulations made by the Department subject (except as otherwise provided in this Order) to negative resolution;

• “relative” includes a relative by marriage[F7 or civil partnership]F3 . . . ;

• “statutory provision” has the meaning assigned to it by section 1( f) of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 [1954 c.33] ;

• “still-birth” means the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother after the[F8 twenty-fourth week] of pregnancy of a child which did not at any time after being completely expelled or extracted breathe or show any other evidence of life.

[F4 (2A) Any reference in this Order to a child whose father and mother were or were not married to [F9 , or civil partners of,] each other at the time of his birth shall be construed in accordance with Article 155 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995.]

(3) Any reference in this Order to a relative of a child shall, in relation to a still-birth, be construed as if the still-born child had been born alive.

F1 Art. 2(2): words in the definition of "birth" added (3.10.2011) by Civil Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 (c. 20), ss. 1(5), 34; S.R. 2011/323, art. 2(a)

F2 Art. 2(2): definition of "death" inserted (3.10.2011) by Civil Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 (c. 20), ss. 9(6), 34; S.R. 2011/323, art. 2(d)

F3 1987 NI 22

F4 1995 NI 2

F5 1983 c. 54

F6 Words in art. 2(2) repealed (16.11.2012) by Civil Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 (c. 20), s. 34, Sch. 2; S.R. 2012/406, art. 2, Sch.

F7 2004 c.33

F8 1992 NI 10

F9 Words in art. 2(2A) inserted (13.1.2020) by The Marriage (Same-sex Couples) and Civil Partnership (Opposite-sex Couples) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/1514), regs. 1(2), 22(2) (with regs. 6-9)